Antipsychotic augmentation in depression linked with mortality risk, study suggests

Antipsychotic augmentation in patients with depression who received an antidepressant for 90 days was associated with a higher risk of mortality than adding a second antidepressant, a cohort study involving nonelderly adults has found. Previous findings of mortality risk associated with use of newer antipsychotics in the elderly led to a black box warning on the medications from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Results of the latest study were published online Sept. 30, 2020, in PloS One .